Beware sporting disaster capitalists not letting this crisis go to waste | Jonathan Liew

The imminent financial turmoil is likely to exploited by those who already have most of the power and money

You may have heard about the 13‑year‑old schoolboy from Leeds called Oliver Cooper who, it has been reported, was sent home after selling precious squirts of hand sanitiser for 50p each. Cooper’s scheme was rumbled when he recklessly tried to sell a squirt to one of his teachers, although not before he had made £9: a windfall that, according to his mother, is being invested in “a multipack of Doritos” and “a kebab”.

All good clean fun and on reflection almost certainly one of those stories that has been trumped up for the benefit of the gullible internet. But a reminder, too, that even in the thick of a crisis there will always be a few with an eye on the main chance, who in the words of the investor Warren Buffett are prepared to “be greedy when others are fearful”. At a time when it feels like the very terms of our lives are being renegotiated by the day, we should be vigilant of those who see in the crumbling of our social and economic norms an unprecedented opportunity to advance ideas that may, in less turbulent times, be taboo.

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